Help designing a free-form Breaking-Bad-esque adventure

[PTTG]

I'm preparing the groundwork for an otherwise largely ab-libed adventure. The PCs are a bunch of southern-california lowlifes and small-time criminals who spend most of their time just barely not being in jail. They are in whatever small town is closest to LA without being part of LA.

One day, they find a safe abandoned in a quarry, and within that safe is the thing which elevates them from the scummy dregs of modern civilization to the heights of political, criminal, and/or social power, which is to say, not very far at all.

I have no idea what to put in that safe.

Ideally the contents are:

-Valuable enough to give these nobodies a substantial step up in the underworld

-Illegal enough to force them to keep it quiet

-Have a backstory or association that invites powerful enemies aside from "the feds" in general.

I'd like to avoid anything supernatural... but if someone has a good idea, I'm listening.

PS: I'm posting this in GURPS because I intend to use the system and I expect someone will tell me "You want Pyramid 329 : Boxes of plutonium and other things douchbags shouldn't have."

[johndallman]

Blackmail material. Something that somebody will pay a lot to have kept quiet. It should preferably be someone who hasn't had much contact with crime, and doesn't realise fast enough that once you've started to pay a blackmailer, you're just making it worse.

Of course, once they realise that, eliminating the blackmailers, framing them for something that will keep them locked away forever, and further complications of choice emerge.

Decide who the target is first and develop their background. The nature of the blackmail material should emerge from that.

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Blackmail material. ...

And it could be an active blackmailing. Maybe the blackmailer got killed, and someone threw the safe in the quarry, hoping it would crack open or it'd remain lost forever. The notes could detail all the blackmailer's methods of contact, applying pressure, all the victims and the actual secrets.
Was he killed by a victim? A rival? A thief? His wife? Do the characters care? Maybe if they start trying to collect arrears.

[(E)]

The safe contains. . .
A URL and login information. Giving the pcs access to the FBI's criminal database. The hacker who found this wants it back. Or the NSA or CIA or any other organisation with a 3 letter name

[mr beer]

Someone mentioned giving the PCs bad coin recently, that sounds like a perfect filler for the safe...like 20 million in high quality fake $100 bills.

- The counterfeiter wants it back.
- The intended buyer of the moolah wants their goods.
- Other criminals will inevitably get interested.
- The feds will get involved in the end, the quicker the more the 'heroes' spend their fake money trying to buy their way out of their spiralling vortex of problems.

[Adversary]

Blackmail material was the first thing that occurred to me, and I love the counterfeit cash idea. Let's see if I can come up with anything else:

--A Van Gogh painting...which is well known to hang in [famous museum] or [home of rich collector]. This is the real painting. (Problem--how do the PC's recognize what they have?)

--The maps, blueprints, security codes, keys etc. to pull off a major heist.

--The body of a child, son or daughter of a very rich family, who had been kidnapped for ransom and who, as far as the family knows, is still alive.

--If the PC's are real low lifes, dirty bomb materials or a quantity of a potent chemical or biological weapon--worth millions to the right buyer.

--More light-heartedly, a la Get Shorty, a copy of the script for the next Dark Knight movie or the finale of a wildly popular television series, said script being held in strictest secrecy to prevent spoilers/leaks.

--The lost Marilyn Monroe "sex tape," filmed in 16mm and stolen from the home of a very wealthy and well-connected personage who never intended it to be released.

--A cache of secret reports, videos, etc. on one or a series of law-enforcement shootings of minorities, compiled internally and never intended for release.

--A list of dirty cops, the payoff amounts due, and the money-drop arrangements.

If you go with a trove of information of whatever kind, it might be good to throw in say $50 grand to get the ball rolling as well. Or not, just an idea.

[PTTG]

I'm liking the counterfit cash... it might make a good "stage two" situation where they get paid off in fake bills.

The blackmail- possibly on more than one person- makes for a really interesting situation because it's less liquid than cash. "Oh, this guy owns half the limo dealerships in the LA basin. Let's threaten to tell everyone about his backseat video collection unless he gives us a couple free ones!"

And there's always the Omega option: All of the above. Although keeping the plutonium from degrading the Monroe sex tape might be tough...

[PTTG]

For future reference, anyone who wants to use the basic idea can use this table I built to populate any random VIPs my players ask about. The book has a little over 200 entries, many of them small and simple, a few lengthy.

Start by selecting the person in question. In all cases, the book is organized by name, so no research roll is needed.

Material regarding an individual is available on 8 or less, modified by reputation. The GM may rule that the NPC simply doesn't have any vices to exploit.

Closest contact (3d):
3-9 Actor themselves or significant other (direct leverage)
10-11 Agent or other very close associate (control contact)
12-13 Lesser staff (remote contact)
14-28 Family or close friend (remote leverage)

Severity (3d):
3-6 Appalling (acts as an unwilling Patron)
7-9 Severe
10-11 Average (one-time payment equal to 1/2 starting wealth OR infrequent, smaller requests.)
12-14 Minor
15-18 Trivial (one “Favor” with diplomacy)

Nature (1d):
1 Criminal (Murder, auto, other "misc" offenses, as well as questionable legal and economic dealing, bribes)
2 Drug/Vice (Gambling and drug use/dealing, wild parties and debauchery)
3 Sexual (Kinks, fetishes, perversions, infidelity, and sex crimes)
4 Identity (Is someone other than claimed, health issue,)
5 Ideological (Relgious or political stances, or weirder beliefs)
6 Combo (roll twice more, ignoring 6s, and combine results)